Seven metaphors for AI - Many Minds
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- Title
- Seven metaphors for AI
- Description
- <p class="p1"><span class="s1">If you wanted a petri dish for understanding metaphors—how they emerge and evolve and jostle with each other—it would be hard to do better than the world of AI. We talk about AI systems variously as coaches or co-pilots, little genies or alien intelligences. Some researchers claim that AIs "grow," that they're entering their phase of "adolescence." Critics deride AI products as slop and dismiss LLMs as a kind of autocomplete on steroids. What's behind these different characterizations? Which ones are accurate and which are unfair? And are our metaphors mostly colorful rhetoric or do they matter? Are they shaping how we understand, adopt, and ultimately regulate these new technologies?</span> <span class="s1"> </span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">My guest today is <a href= "https://melaniemitchell.me/"><span class="s2">Dr. Melanie Mitchell</span></a>. Melanie is a computer scientist and Professor at the Santa Fe Institute. She is the author of the book, <a href= "https://melaniemitchell.me/aibook/"><span class="s2"><em>AI: A Guide for Thinking Humans</em>,</span></a> and she writes a <a href="https://aiguide.substack.com/"><span class= "s2">Substack</span></a> by the same name. </span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">This episode is a bit of a companion to <a href= "https://disi.org/the-aura-of-metaphor/"><span class="s2">our recent episode</span></a> with Steve Flusberg. In that episode, Steve and I attempted a kind of crash course on metaphor and the human mind. Here, Melanie and I sit down for more of an extended case study: how metaphors are guiding, galvanizing, and maybe deceiving us in the contested realm of AI discourse. We unpack seven of the most widely used metaphors in this space. We consider how these metaphors are shaping not only our everyday understandings of AI, but also law and policy. We also talk about the metaphor and analogy capabilities of AI itself. Can these systems reason abstractly in the way that humans can? Along the way, Melanie and I touch on: AI-generated poetry, anthropomorphism, the original sin of AI research, the myth of Narcissus, psychometric testing and its pitfalls, metaphors for AI that are a bit hard to spot, and the question of whether an AI has ever come up with a decent analogy for itself.</span><span class= "s1"> </span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Longtime fans of the show will know that we've had Melanie on the show <a href= "https://disi.org/why-is-ai-so-hard/"><span class="s2">once before</span></a>. We invited her back, not only because she's thought about metaphor and analogy in AI discourse for decades, but because she's a voice of calm insight in an area that's increasingly awash in hype and polemic. Longtime fans of the show may also note that we are now celebrating our 6th birthday at Many Minds. That's right, the show launched in February 2020. If you'd like to support us as we recognize this milestone, you can leave us a rating or a review, recommend us to a friend, or give us a shout out on social media. Your support is always appreciated. </span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Without further ado, on to my conversation with Dr. Melanie Mitchell. Enjoy!</span><span class= "s1"> </span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s2"> </span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s2"><em>Notes</em></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">3:30 – For an overview of Douglas Hofstadter's work on analogy, see <a href= "https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/douglas-r-hofstadter/surfaces-and-essences/9780465018475/?lens=basic-books"> <span class="s2">here</span></a>.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">8:00 – Much of our discussion in this interview draws on Dr. Mitchell's piece on the <a href= "https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adt6140"><span class= "s2">metaphors for AI</span></a> in <em>Science</em> magazine.</span><span class="s1"> </span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">13:30 – For earlier discussions of anthropomorphism on the show, see our earlier episodes <a href= "https://disi.org/animal-
- Publication Date
- 2026-02-26T00:26:00+00:00
- Status
- completed
- Website
- https://manyminds.libsyn.com/seven-metaphors-for-ai
- Length
- 55:45
- File
- /podcasts/Many Minds/1772065560-5255.mp3
- Size
- 44.35 MB
- Bitrate
- 108-VBR
- Channels
- 1
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